Certain dies, molds and other products need to be shaped generally with intricate three-dimensional contours and these products have hitherto been produced by a milling tool, a grinder or a machine designed to execute electrical discharge machining (EDM) or electrochemical machining (ECM), or a combination of milling, grinding and EDM or ECM machines. To the best of applicant's knowledge, however, there has been no attempt in the art to exploit drilling techniques in making a die, mold or any other intricately contoured product.
It has been recognized that electrical machining processes such as EDM or ECM are capable of reproducing practically any intricate three-dimensional contour with an extremely high precision but have a relatively low rate of material removal. Milling and grinding techniques have also been developed to find use, as one of their major genres of application, in the die or mold machining art where these techniques have been employed to roughly shaped a desired die or mold contour. The die mold contour roughly shaped by milling or grinding is commonly hand-finished by a skilled worker with considerable labor and time expenditure. It has been also been proposed to use electrical machining techniques to finish-machine the contour roughly shaped in a milling or grinding machine.
There is, however, a constant desire to reduce the total time and labor in producing a desired die, mold or other product with an intricate three-dimensional contour.